Rangers
by Mystical Authoress
Summary: AU fic. A hunter led to death by a mysterious boy. A mage who ressurrects him. These three become an unlikely trio of best friends.


**Author note: I do not own Count Cain: Godchild. Nor do I own Cassandra, Leroy/Latisha, and Maryweather. Nor do I own the song that inspired this fic, 'Rangers' by A Fine Frenzy.**

**I know, I know...I should be focusing more on the other Godchild fics like 'Wonderland' and 'Time for Torture,' and that you guys out there are probably hoping for a CainxRiff fic or JizabelxCassian fic instead of what I usually write, but I REALLY had to write this.**

**Warning: This is an AU fic. Anything can happen, including poisoning, some violence, and so on. **

**Constructive criticism would be great, and I hope you enjoy!**

_Rangers_

The hunter Cassandra stared around the mist-filled forestry about him. Where was a potential _prey_ when you needed one? He had to find it. Someone, _something_...it was in his **blood** to hunt. And he was going to search until he found something.

A branch_ snapped _through the sigh of the trees. He turned. He saw a _flash_ of ash-blond hair.

Instinctively, he took out his bow and arrow, aimed, and shot. The bow whizzed through the bushes, hoping to find its prey...and missed. He cursed, and hung the bow behind his back.

A high-pitched scream alerted the hunter's attention, and he ran.

The chase was on. Cutting through the bushes with his now unsheathed sword in hand, he was determined to find the prey and kill it. That was what a hunter did...

* * *

The boy rushed through the forest as fast as he could. He had to run. He had to do this. He was sick of the hunter trying to hunt him down. The boy gave a small smile. He was going to lead this hunter to his doom, if he had to, to get rid of him once and for all.

* * *

The hunter stared at the beauty in front of him.

It was a large, large tree, with glistening red fruit hanging from its branches. Drops of dew rested on the leafy branches, dew from the misty, damp air. Small beams of sunlight shone down upon the tree, making the dew-covered fruits look even more shinier and fresh.

The hunter paused, looking behind him before looking at the tree. He was getting hungry, he hated to admit to himself, and he did unfortunately lose the prey. He might as well eat something, right? The fruits seemed fresh enough to eat, after all. The tree seemed pretty healthy...there was no harm in trying, right?

He extended a hand into the lower branches and retrieved an apple, scarlet as blood and fresh looking. He inspected the fruit quickly. No holes. Good.

He took a bite...and nearly lost himself within the taste. It tasted so...good. This was the best fruit he had ever eaten, he swore. It was extremely sweet, but it wasn't anything artificial like pure sugar. No...this was a natural sweetness, like the honey that dripped from beehives. And the scent...the scent reminded him of cherry blossoms, roses, lavender, lillies...such an irresistible scent it was.

He finished off the apple, wiping the juice dripping from his mouth with his sleeve and throwing the core aside. It was certainly a satisfying snack for him, and perhaps, he figured, he should take note of this place...

Before he could do anything else, however, a snap of a branch caused him to look up and see...the prey, biting into another apple, chewing and swallowing before looking down at Cassandra. The prey was almost as pretty like the tree. It was obvious the prey was a he, but he wore a gown of light blue and pink with black pants underneath. He was barefoot, and his ash-blond hair was obviously growing out. His dark eyes stared at Cassandra with some sort of message; 'I know something you don't know.'

"You did eat from the tree...correct?" the boy asked. Cassandra merely nodded, unsure of what the point of this question was. The boy continued to speak. "Those who enter this place never leave...and I know why. That tree...any creature like I can surely survive upon its fruit, but...a human like you will perish. You will _die_ within minutes of eating it. I had enough of you, chasing me about! You won't hunt me any longer!" With that, the boy vanished into thin air.

Cassandra's eyes widened in horror. He had been **tricked! **The boy must have purposely let himself be chased by the hunter to only lead him to his **_doom_**...

He ran, desperate to find help, to find anyone, someone!

_Those who enter here never leave..._

He fell, gasping for breath. He felt as if he couldn't breathe, that his whole body was burning, drowning in invisible flames...

He became so dizzy. His vision was spinning, spinning, **_spinning..._**

_Help me please..._

He fell with the wind, no longer breathing, his pulse halted.

* * *

The mage of golden-blonde hair stared at the fallen hunter. Pity came upon her, and slowly, carefully, she approached him.

"Whataya think you're doing?"

She looked up to see the creature, with his ash-blond hair blowing about in the breeze. He jumped down from the tree branch he had perched upon, and walked over to her.

"We don't have to worry about him anymore. He's not going to hunt us anymore, Maryweather..." the boy trailed off. "He's dead."

"Leroy...I said we needed a way to make sure he didn't hunt us ever again, but we didn't have to kill him!" Maryweather responded, looking at the dead hunter before looking at Leroy and giving him a small glare. "You know how much I hate stuff like this..."

"Well...he can't really go back to wherever he came from. Everyone will think he's dead, anyway. He's been out here for weeks."

"...True." Maryweather got down on her knees to take a closer look at the hunter. His skin was deathly pale, like the dead, and somewhat taking a slightly greyer tone. "But he couldn't help it. You know it's in this particular hunter's blood to do nothing but hunt." She turned to Leroy. "I'm bringing him back."

"How?" Leroy asked. "And why?"

"Because..." Maryweather paused before finishing. "Just because."

* * *

Cassandra opened his eyes slowly. He got into a sitting position on the grassy ground and looked about. What happened? Wasn't he...dying? Was he already dead? He put a hand to his neck in search of a pulse. His heart was still beating, surprisingly. How? Did he survive?

"I brought you back from the dead." he turned to see a little girl with golden-blonde hair. She wore a dark green sundress, and she was barefoot. "My name is Maryweather. I'm a mage-in-training, you could say. I'm an apprentice to Celeste Helena Octavia. What's your name?"

"..." Cassandra paused for a moment. This girl was a mage, someone with magic abilities. He might as well trust that she told the truth...at least for now. "Cassandra Gladstone."

* * *

Cassandra learned of his newfound powers very quickly.

Maryweather had explained to him that with resurrecting him, she had to sacrifice the blood of an animal. In his case, it was a wolf. The person that was resurrected (Cassandra) would gain that animal's abilities and be able to transform into that animal and back as well.

Harnessing the abilities was not easy at first (he once ended up being stuck as a wolf for an entire week by accident), but he got used to it. And just in time for spring, when many hunters would show up in the woods and try to hunt the innocent animals there. Cassandra was able to find the best hiding places so Leroy and the other animals would never get caught, and they were grateful for this.

* * *

Now, the three are an unlikely trio of best friends, hanging around in the forest and helping each other out in sticky situations. Who would have known that both predator and prey could befriend each other?

* * *

**Author note: Okay, okay, I admit, this wasn't my best work. Did any of you guys think the ending was rushed? Please...lots of constructive criticism would be great! Thanks for reading!**


End file.
